The pursuit of Julian Assange is an assault on freedom and a mockery of journalism by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
Global Research
www.johnpilger.com
Aug. 23, 2012

Image by a.powers-fudyma via Flickr

The British government’s threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London and seize Julian Assange is of historic significance. David Cameron, the former PR man to a television industry huckster and arms salesman to sheikdoms, is well placed to dishonour international conventions that have protected Britons in places of upheaval. Just as Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq led directly to the acts of terrorismin London on 7 July 2005, so Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have compromised the safety of British representatives across the world.

Julian Assange: The US administration’s war against whistleblowers must end. Bradley Manning must be released.

Image by chrisjohnbeckett via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Aug 19, 2012 by RussiaToday

Julian Assange makes his first public appearance in two months, ever since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The WikiLeaks founder was granted political asylum on Thursday — a decision that ignited a wave of international responses, with the UK and Sweden opposing the verdict and Latin American countries strongly supporting Ecuador’s move.

Ecuador’s Decision on Julian Assange’s Request For Asylum: YES!

Image by Takver via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Listened to the live report via Russia TV and just heard the news. Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said, “Asylum is a fundamental right to all, held over local law.”

Aug 16, 2012 by RussiaToday

Ecuador has granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange –

When you f*ck around with God’s country, you pay a price! by William Blum

by William Blum
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org
July 3, 2012

Image by Takver via Flickr

The Anti-Empire Report

Julian Assange

I’m sure most Americans are mighty proud of the fact that Julian Assange is so frightened of falling into the custody of the United States that he had to seek sanctuary in the embassy of Ecuador, a tiny and poor Third World country, without any way of knowing how it would turn out. He might be forced to be there for years.

Julian Assange seeks political asylum in Ecuador + Julian Assange Show: Rafael Correa

Dandelion Salad

Updated: June 20, 2012 added more video reports plus an Action Alert.

Julian Assange (Photo credit: acidpolly)

Jun 19, 2012 by RTAmerica

On Tuesday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, UK. At a press conference today in Quito, the foreign minister said to the media that the government is evaluating the request and looking into the rules of international law. Back in 2010 the country offered the whistleblower citizenship, but why is Assange seeking to depart to Ecuador now? RT America’s Web Producer Andrew Blake helps us answer some of these pressing questions.

Greg Palast on Condoleezza Rice teaming up with Chevron

with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
June 3, 2011

Image by Rainforest Action Network via Flickr

RTAmerica on Jun 3, 2011

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has teamed up with the Chevron Oil Corporation and a think tank to reduce poverty worldwide. While Rice has been long affiliated with Chevron, their gameplan seems the most unlikely part of the equation. Chevron wouldn’t pay for poisoning 1,400 people by dumping oil in Ecuador, so why would they care about the Third World now? Investigative journalist Greg Palast says this partnership is fooling no one but the American press.

Capitalism and Class Struggle by Prof. James Petras

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Prof. James Petras
Global Research
April 25, 2011

Image by oemebamo via Flickr

Introduction

The class struggle continues to play a central role in the process of capitalist accumulation, albeit it takes different forms depending on the socio-economic context. In order to map out the unfolding of the class struggle it is necessary to specify key concepts related to the (a) varied conditions and dominant sectors of capital in the global economy (b) nature of the class struggle (c) the principle protagonists of class struggles (d) character of the demands (e) mass struggles.

Greg Palast: Oil Dictatorships are the bigger threat to the global economy + Chevron vs. the Amazon

with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
February 15, 2011

Image by Rainforest Action Network via Flickr

RussiaToday | February 17, 2011

This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about Guanxi schemes selling fictional forests for real money, while real farmland cant find even a virtual penny. In the second half of the show, Max talks to author and documentary filmmaker, Greg Palast, about whether it is peak oil or oil dictatorships that is the bigger threat to the global economy.

Chevron Runs from Judgment in Ecuador by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
February 15, 2011

Image by Rainforest Action Network via Flickr

Chevron petroleum Corporation is attempting to slither out of an $8 billion judgment rendered yesterday by a trial court in Ecuador for cancer deaths, illnesses and destruction caused by its Texaco unit.

I’ve been there, in Ecuador.

I met the victims.  They didn’t lose their shrimp boats; they lost their kids.  Emergildo Criollo, Chief of the Cofan Natives of the Amazon, told me about his three-year-old.  ”He went swimming, then began vomiting blood.” Then he died.

World’s Largest Environmental Lawsuit in Ecuador

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by Rainforest Action Network via Flickr

TheRealNews | December 21, 2010

30,000 natives fight for compensation against Texaco (now Chevron), accused of 3 decades of toxic dumping in Amazon

Rafael Correa on WikiLeaks, the September Coup, U.S. Denial of Climate Funding, and Controversial Forest Scheme REDD

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Democracy Now!
Dec. 9, 2010

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on WikiLeaks, the September Coup, U.S. Denial of Climate Funding, and Controversial Forest Scheme REDD

Secret U.S. diplomatic cables recently published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks revealed new details about how the U.S. manipulated last year’s U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. Ecuador was one of the nations that lost funding after it refused to sign on to the U.S.-led Copenhagen Accord. Democracy Now! asks Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa about the latest WikiLeaks revelations on how the United States denied his country aid, the failed coup against him earlier this year, and his support for the controversial carbon market-based forest protection scheme known as REDD.

Chomsky: “The Business Elites … Are Instinctive Marxists” by Keane Bhatt

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Keane Bhatt
t r u t h o u t
19 November 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Acclaimed philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He shared his perspectives on international affairs, economics and other themes in an interview conducted at his office in Boston on September 14, 2010.

Keane Bhatt: Your new book “Hopes and Prospects” begins with the story of Haiti, and that’s what we discussed last, so it’s an appropriate place to start the interview. For hundreds of thousands of people, decent, hurricane-resistant housing is a chimera. Despite the billions given to relief agencies, Carrefour camp-dwellers pay a monthly “tax” just to stay there; 1.3 million people are still internally displaced. An estimated 8,000 displaced persons have been forcibly evicted. If there were a functioning, democratic Haitian state, it could use eminent domain on behalf of the affected population to secure land for permanent housing.

All the Colonel’s Men – Who was behind Ecuador’s coup?

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

http://therealnews.com

On September 30th Rafael Correa was held by a group of angry policemen for about 10 hours creating a political scar in this Andean republic that would not be easily healed. In the days that followed the idea that there could have been a mastermind coordinating the actions of those who took such radical measures takes shape. There are reported facts that cannot been ignored: all the Colonels men were very active that day, having secret meetings in hotels, speaking on TV and allegedly coordinating what was taking place in a number of scenarios.

Crude (2009)

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Note: replaced video June 30, 2012

Image by Rainforest Action Network via Flickr

From Wikipedia:

Crude is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Joe Berlinger.^[1] It follows a two year portion of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the Chevron Corporation in Ecuador.

The film follows the progress during 2006 and 2007 of a $27 billion legal case brought against the Chevron Corporation following the drilling of the Lago Agrio oil field, a case also known as the “Amazon Chernobyl”.

Rafael Correa: If I died that day, they’d call it suicide

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

RussiaToday | October 21, 2010

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has given an exclusive interview to RT’s Spanish channel. During the conversation he spoke about some inside facts of the recent coup attempt in Quito. The violent drama left five people dead. Its details are still unclear. There’s no doubt it was an attempted coup, I will support my position with arguments a bit later,” said Rafael Correa. “In our country the opposition can say whatever they like. It is believed here that being in the opposition means denying obvious things, they are even ready to argue that a circle has right-angles, and if I had died that day, they would have said that I committed suicide.” “Presumably, a certain part of society — in this case, armed people, national police — expressed their discontent with the new law they haven’t even read to the end,” the president added. “The law is a good one, all this has happened because of misleading information.” Speaking on how the takeover was organized, he emphasized that the attempt was well-planned. “They were not acting on their own. Their actions were co-ordinated by political groups — that’s what I would like to stress. Those groups stayed in the shadow, waiting for the outcome of this attempted coup d’etat. But the attempt failed.”